Charles Champaud
Encyclopedia
Charles Champaud Bulgarianized Charles Shampov (Шарл Шампов), was a Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 gymnast
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics
1896 Summer Olympics
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was a multi-sport event celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896. It was the first international Olympic Games held in the Modern era...

 in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

.

Champaud competed in the parallel bars, vault, and pommel horse
Pommel horse
The pommel horse is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. Traditionally, it is used by only male gymnasts. Originally made of a metal frame with a wooden body and a leather cover, modern pommel horses have a metal body covered with foam rubber and leather, with plastic handles .- History :The pommel...

 events. He did not medal in any of his competitions, though his exact placings in each are unknown.

According to the Bulgarian Olympic Committee
Bulgarian Olympic Committee
The Bulgarian Olympic Committee is a non-profit organization serving as the National Olympic Committee of Bulgaria and a part of the International Olympic Committee...

, Champaud, a Swiss national living in Bulgaria and working as a gymnastics teacher at a Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

 high school, competed for that country at the first modern Olympics
1896 Summer Olympics
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was a multi-sport event celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896. It was the first international Olympic Games held in the Modern era...

. Bulgaria is thus often included in the figure of participating nations.

In Bulgaria, Charles Champaud also played an important role in introducing football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 to the country and was the person to bring the sport to the capital city of Sofia in 1895 (the first football game in Bulgaria being in Varna
Varna
Varna is the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and third-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia and Plovdiv, with a population of 334,870 inhabitants according to Census 2011...

 in 1894, organized by another Swiss teacher, Georges de Regibus
Georges de Regibus
Georges de Regibus was a Swiss athlete and sports teacher credited with introducing association football to Bulgaria in 1894.-Biography:...

).
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